POLARIS PI Grace Shephard delivered two keynote talks this past month at her visiting institute (Research School of Earth Sciences, RSES) at the Australian National University.
The first was for the RSES 50th anniversary symposium where Grace was invited to give the keynote on behalf of the Geophysics group. Her talk was entitled “A magical mystery tour of Arctic geodynamics”. She also participated in a panel discussion on the future of geophysics. She was part of the organizing committee for the 50th and received a beautiful paperweight with the radial structure of the Earth as thanks. A highlight of the program was the Gala dinner held at the National Museum of Australia. You can find the full program at this link.
The second talk was for the GESSS student-led and organized symposium (Geological Society of Australia Student Symposium). Grace delivered an invited talk entitled “”Dont pat the polar bear” – and other life lessons from a decade in Norway” which was a mix of POLARIS-related research and personal reflections on pursuing a career in academia. The symposium was well attended by enthusiatic and smart Earth Science students (mainly university-level but also included a motivated high school student) from all over the state, including regional and rural areas thanks to travel support from sponsors.